Hi everyone, there is a funny myth that some people in Quebec have created. I want you to destroy this myth if you hear/read it somewhere.

Myth : Snakes measure their prey before eating it

Story: Once upon a time, there was a woman who bought a snake. Her snake was a big burmese python (12 feet long) that was living inside her bedroom. The snake was free roaming all the time, he had no cage at all (very bad thing). The big burmese python was sleeping in a ball on the carpet right besides the woman's bed. One day, the woman wake up and find her snakes straight long (on the bed) beside her. The woman was asking herself why the snake was in this position when she woke up. She decide to call the petshop that sold her the snake (very bad reference), she ask the guy, why her snake was straight long beside her when she woke up. The guy answer : You should bring your snake back to me, because he is trying to measure you, to eat you...

So, after hearing this funny myth, many people (in Quebec) are scared to buy snakes because they think that all snakes will try to measure them to eat them.

So here are the reason why this myth is wrong.

1- Snakes, do not know math theory. They don't know what is a foot, a centimeter, a meter, a day, a fraction etc. Snakes cannot learn measurement. This is human theory, animals do not know how make a difference between all of those things.

2- Snakes, ambush their prey. Have you ever seen a snake (in the wild) or in captivity, going on the right of his prey, measuring it, and then trying to kill it, before eating it? No, because prey (mouse, rat) will run away if they see a bigger animal than them. (big things eat small things) So the snake to not have the choice to catch him and kill it. If the prey is too big, and the snake is not capable of eating it, he will drop it down and search something else.

3- Snakes, in movement, will be straight long. They do not form a ball, and roll over to move their entire body.

4- If the snakes (everytime there were straight long) were measuring things to know if they are capable of eating it, that would means, that everytime you see your snakes inside their enclosure, moving straight long besides the water bowl, hides and branch, that would mean that they are measuring their accessories to see if they can eat them .


So why the snake was straight long beside the woman?

Hypothesis 1 : The snake was in movement and exploring his environment when she woke up
Hypothesis 2 : The snake was cold (rooms are cold in winter) and he decide to go near a heat source (human) to raise up his body temperature.

If you do have other hypothesis, feel free to write them.